Jachut

This is a normal cycle, I've been the same, get a fill, drop a bit of weight quickly, drop a tiny bit more then maintain till next fill. But over time, as I've approached perfect restriction (not there yet, groan, 14 months down the track, I dont think I'll ever get there) the fills last longer. Its taken 3 months for me to get hungrier this time, not 3 weeks.

The wind here today is scary. I'm sure the news will be full of houses with no rooves. We've remulched the front garden today and I've done the entire thing with hair in my eyes, up my nose, in my mouth, I havent been able to see a thing. I let go of the bucket and it disappeared about 500 metres up the road, I had to sprint to get it. Even the wheelbarrow blew away! Hopefully rain's coming! I'd be keen for a meet up!

Women should have CHOICE - as they do now. Families werent more held together and more wholesome when all women stayed home - women were trapped is all. They were too financially and socially dependent to go anywhere if the relationship was bad or they werent happy staying at home and performing that role. They had to stay becuase they couldnt work and society didnt treat divorcees well. I'd say women are happier now. Yes the nuclear family as we knew it may have changed somewhat - but why is that a bad thing? I agree its a good way to grow up - two happily married parents, mum at home, but its not the only way and I dont believe you can attribute our present day problems to just the fact that women dont always choose to stay at home anymore. There's millions of other factors that come into play. Its actually not something I would want to preent to my daughter or my sons as a "superior" or the "only" choice even though I've been home with them, its just one of many choices on how to parent.

No, I dont mean feel it as in palpate it with my hands. I can feel it on the outside of my stomach kind of thing. But its only after hard exercise, it could be anything really.

I mentioned this to someone the other day - I dont get anything associated with food except for the normal golf ball feeling - which I wouldnt call painful. But everynow and then I wake up with a crampy achey stomach - it just has that kind of clenching feeling you get when you're sick and are going to vomit but no nausea is associated with it, no vomiting either. I just have an ache there that lasts a day or two, I can eat normally, dont get blocked, am no tighter but it just hurts enough to be annoying, and to make me feel a bit miserable. Who knows? It may be pressing on something in there some days and not others depending on how I've slept - I always wake up feeling this way, it never just comes on during the day. Perhaps its something similar, just pressure somewhere caused by eating or whatever, but it would probably pay to mention it to your doc, just in case. It could be as simple as this is how you experience a blockage.

Good luck, this sounds rather alarming. I would completely freak out!

I actually liquidised "real" food - in that we had a roast chicken on night, so I took some skinless roast chicken (I reserved some of the breast for me), some steamed vegetables, perhaps 1/4 of a potato and some gravy and added a lot of liquid chicken stock, blended it all up so that it would go through a straw. Did the same with spaghetti bolognaise - took the meat sauce, a few bits of cooked spaghetti, added a can of tomatoes and turned it soupy. Vegetable and lentil Soup with loads of organic veges and brown lentils. liquids means anything that goes through a straw and with stock, a can of tomatoes or Water you can blend most things up. I had as normal a diet as possible during liquids and I found them easy easy easy, and because the liquids I made were filling, I took in less calories than I would have done eating rubbish like jelly, ice cream or loads of juice (all of which were also allowed). Before I started doing this I was trying to use up the Optifast as well as juice and V8 etc and I was getting disoriented and ended up having fainting spells.

I was very lucky to really only have pain the day of surgery, but when I woke up I was in pain and they put a pillow under my knees. If you're laying on your back, it really relieves the pressure on your stomach if you raise your knees a little. I could sleep on my side by using a pillow under my tummy, like you do when pregnant.

We had quite the debate on this a while ago but I think I can feel my band on the outside of my stomach. Its only when I've worked out really hard, and the muscles are all tensed and full of blood that I can. It may be a referred feeling from my port, but I do think I can feel it.

Not only do I do this to our pussy cat, but I do it to the kids too!

Its pretty much how I experience the band. I dont get full quick, stop and then stay full for hours - if I'm eating something that goes down well I can eat quite a lot of it, if I'm eating something that doesnt, I get full quick but then get hungry very quickly afterwards. Since personality wise, I diet much better on 3 meals a day and not on constant Snacks, I've elected to stay looser so I can get enough in to sit with me for a while. I've lost weight quite well on 1500 or more calories a day so it works for me.

I didnt really measure liquid, I could always fit in about a mug of fairly thick soup, I just went with what was comfortable at a time, had something whenever I was hungry. I'm a dreadful water drinker, probably drink 2 or 3 big glasses a day of plain water, but I drink way too much coffee! Custard, jelly and ice cream I avoided. Just because I "could" eat them, didnt mean I should. And I really found I needed to be blending proper food for the energy - after the first few days on V8, juice and Optifast I was passing out and disoriented - I blended up real food as I could handle it - a roast dinner with chicken stock to make it liquidy, spag bol with a can of tomatoes etc. I coped much better on this.

I must say, I checked out the thread and I'd say people were exceedingly rude to you!

I've found that my food bill hasnt really changed, if anything, its gone up. Less cheap meat like sausages and more expensive stuff like lamb cutlets. More fruit and vegetables (I buy organic) which cost a lot more than chips and Cookies. When I eat out, I order the same - I've only ever ordered just a main meal, never been an entree, main, dessert eater. YOu dont generally get doggie bags in Australia so I pay for my main, eat 1/3 of it and the rest gets thrown out. The family's diet has improved overall, but I'm spending quite a substantial amount of money on supplements and Vitamins for me.

I wouldnt go, I'd hang around and state my opinion even MORE, lol. It seems there are many people online - not just here - who really cannot handle being disagreed with. I do get upset when I think I've upset someone as occasionally I do tend to blurt out a very blunt opinion. My early days online were just fight after fight after fight until I learned how to say things I wanted to say properly (although I still mess up now and then) and I learned when not to say anything and stopped trying to get the last word in, lol. I'm sorry that not everyone was willing to cut you similar slack. Everyone has a right to their opinion and basically, we're here to express them, so I dont see that its necessary to report somebody unless you're downright rude and abusive to them. I hope you decide to stick around - you will develop a thicker skin and learn to not be upset by stuff like this.

I lost a lot of my weight unfilled, in fact the greater proportion. But I stayed quite swollen for a long time after surgery fortunately because since that went away I've never achieved good restriction

Hehe, a very blobby, bouncy machine. Wish I could take my boobs off to go for a run!

I used to drink sweetened coffee when I was a teenager, but honestly, giving up sugar in tea and coffee literally takes 2 weeks. It is not a difficult thing to do at all. Having a sweet tooth, its harder to give up sweet foods in general, but in moderation they're OK unless your a hard baked no carbs fan, lol, I choose not to do that to myself, I could well be wrong, but I figure you probably dont really live longer, it only feels that way!

The mothers day classic was my very first fun run last year Meredith! Best of luck with it, its a great day and you'll get the bug for sure. I ran the Sussan 10k in December!

Gosh, after having had 3 babies, they can look all they want anyway. I have no modesty or dignity left!

*gobsmacked* You just do NOT see results like that very often from a major weight loss. Well, not unless they're totally posed, touched up and airbrushed. That is truly amazing. I'm very big on how my family needs the money more than I need PS but bugger the lot of them. We can live in a shack! If I were to show your pic to Doug, ah, I'm sure he'd agree, lol. I'll protect your modesty though!

I found the way I got through liquids was to blend up REAL food, not stick with juice, shakes etc. SO when the family had spaghetti bolognaise, I would blend it up with an extra can of tomatoes and get about six meals out of it. It was soupy, would pass up a straw, and I gradually thickened it up over time. That way I was getting real vegetables, real meat and real carbs and truly, hunger was no problem at all to me. Before I did that I did V8, Optifast, Water etc for a few days and I was soon passing out and disoriented. Real food was the way to go, it just has to be the right consistency. I cooked myself up a huge pot of vegetable and lentil soup too and that was like heaven!

Me too! Most people get a LOT better results weight loss wise from more cario than that - but body building wise, too much cardio is counter productive. It depends what you're trying to achieve.

I would never ever ever eat a lot of artificially sweetened products! It never took scientific evidence for me to feel that I should just use sugar in moderation, and curb my sweet tooth. Sweet foods are sweet foods and if they have proper proportion in your diet, the calories are not going to be a problem. A gallon of soft drink a day is not moderation, you cant get away with it just by switching to the artificially sweetened version. I feel that way about fat too. I drink skim milk because I really hate the taste of full cream but other than that, I eat the full fat version of things. I might eat a carton of yogurt two times a week, so to me, I'm not going to sacrifice the taste for a smidgin less fat. I buy full cream natural yogurt and I love it. Ditto Cookies and stuff, I just dont bother with the low fat because I shouldnt be eating many of them anyway.

Of course, there IS a huge difference in teaching your child that its rude to stare and teaching him "dont look at that temptresses evil bosoms or you'll be struck down by lightening". We may all be reacting to something that's never been said.